The city of blinding lights is starting to see 'green'

“But it does indicate that when you change the law to give incentives to engage in particular behaviors, the market will respond.”

It draws busloads of Sin City tourists, it's got more mirrors than the Trump Towers, and sometimes the lights are practically blinding.

But this latest marvel in the Nevada desert isn't a hotel casino. It's a solar thermal plant that provides peak power to nearby Las Vegas, one of the most unlikely places on the planet to be showing signs of environmental fervor.

On the Strip itself, not far from the canals at the Venetian and the fake volcano, thousands of hard hats are following ecofriendly building standards at the most expensive privately funded project in US history. The CityCenter condo complex has spawned "green" subcontractors and stocked the local lumberyards with sustainable timber. Read more

[S Steinberg]

Unfortunately, these LEED-certified projects that are supposed to be "healthy buildings" are going to be SMOKING PERMITTED.
The casinos lobbied hard to get an exemption to the smoking requirements of LEED and they got it. And what does the U.S. Green Building Council do in response? They give the smoking exemption a "green" light.
Casino workers in these "green" buildings will be involuntarily breathing secondhand smoke all day every day. Their health will continue to suffer in the form of asthma, respiratory illness, migraines, breast cancer, heart disease, lung cancer and death. Pregnant employees will also risk their own health and the health of their growing fetuses.
Even the "green" hotel and condominium buildings in these projects will be smoking permitted indoors and in individual units where the gaseous properties of the smoke can permeate through walls, doors, windows and into hallways.
And once these projects get certified, there is no one to ensure these properties are actually staying green.
The green is in the money savings and the enormous tax breaks, not in the health of the people.

[neonmatt]

A LEED certification has nothing to do with smoking or non smoking. It has to do with saving energy. The casino will save just as much energy regardless if people are allowed to smoke in the casino or not. Tourist seem to like to smoke while they gamble. Smoking has been banned here in malls and restaurants already. The casinos are pretty much the only exception, and that is because we have an economy based on tourism and the legislature here will bend the law around what the tourists want. Right now... they want to smoke while they play. The employees of these hotels are not "involuntarily" breathing in anything. They have the right to quit at anytime. They know exactly what they are getting into when they apply for the job.